Category: Roman Catholic Church

Cindy Wooden CRUX Pope Francis said on Friday that in societies where profit is allowed to be the only concern, “democracy tends to become a plutocracy, where inequality and the exploitation of the planet grows.” The pontiff said political action “must be placed truly at the service of the human person, the common good and respect for nature.” Greater inequality and a more rapid destruction … Continue reading ‘Civilize the market’ for common good, care of creation, pope says

Address to Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences

Pope Francis said there is “a need of great current relevance, such as that of developing new models of cooperation between the market, the State and civil society, in relation to the challenges of our time.”

His comments came October 20, 2017, in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace, where he received the participants in the meeting organized by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.

The Holy Father focused on two key points:

The endemic and systemic increase of inequality and the exploitation of the planet, which is greater than the increase in income and wealth.

The other cause of exclusion is work that is not worthy of the human person.

His remarks came at the UN in New York during the Second Committee debates on Agenda Item 17, dedicated to Macroeconomic policy questions and on Agenda Item 18, dedicated to the follow-up and implementation of the outcomes of the International Conferences on Financing for Development.

He also highlighted the importance of increasing official development assistance for LDCs, while expressing concern about debt sustainability for developing countries. He said that increasing debt relief, humanitarian aid, and donor commitments for the growing burden of global refugee costs will help make possible the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Here is Archbishop Auza’s Statement

Statement by H.E. Archbishop Bernardito Auza
Apostolic Nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See
Seventy-second Session of the United Nations General Assembly, Second Committee
Agenda Item 17: Macroeconomic policy questions
and Agenda Item 18: Follow-up to and implementation of the outcomes of the International Conferences on Financing for Development
New York, 5-6 October 2017

Pope Francistoday committed the Catholic Church to work “effectively and with genuine passion,” in close association with lawmakers, police authorities, technological giants in the field of social communications and other actors in civil society, for “the effective protection of the dignity of minors in the digital world.”

He offered this commitment in the Vatican’s Clementine Hall when he addressed the 140 participants from the first world congress on “Child Dignity in the Digital World” that was held at the Jesuit-run Pontifical Gregorian University, Oct. 3 to 6.

AP VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Friday denounced the proliferation of adult and child pornography on the internet and demanded better protections for children online — even as the Vatican confronts its own cross-border child porn investigation involving a top papal envoy. Francis met with participants of a Catholic Church-backed international conference on fighting child pornography and protecting children in the digital age. … Continue reading Pope denounces porn and corruption of kids’ minds, bodies

CRUX Amidst rising tensions between North Korea and the United States, Pope Francis told an interfaith gathering of religious leaders from South Korea that they are called to be “heralds of peace, proclaiming and embodying a nonviolent style, a style of peace, with words clearly different from the narrative of fear, and with gestures opposed to the rhetoric of hatred.” Pope Francis told religious leaders … Continue reading Pope Francis tells Korean religious leaders to oppose “rhetoric of hatred”

Zenit “A moment of fruitful dialogue,” is how Pope Francis welcomed the ever growing “friendly and fraternal “ relations that link the Catholic Church and the Jewish world. Since the Conciliar Declaration Nostra Aetate, he said “we have deepened our mutual knowledge and intensified our bonds of friendship.” The Holy Father received in audience the representatives of the Conference of European Rabbis, of the Rabbinical Council … Continue reading Pope Francis’ Message to Rabbis: A Fruitful Dialogue

Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew have issued a joint statement to mark the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation. Archdeacon John Chryssavgis, Bartholomew’s theological advisor on environmental issues, says the message comes at a time of global crisis and international instability.

The world that we share – the ground we tread, the air we breathe, the water we savor – unites us in a very tangible and profound way. Despite our diverse religious or racial differences, the earth provides a basis of solidarity and the ground of harmony for all people, all creatures, and all things.

U.S. Catholic climate leaders say that Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew‘s joint statement on the environment are a veiled criticism at the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement. The document, they argue, offers both pastoral and practical wisdom for Christian communities to work together for a greater care of creation.

Earlier this week, Francis said he and Bartholomew are inviting everyone “to take an attitude of respect and responsibility towards creation,” though the statement concludes with a direct plea to world leaders.

“We urgently appeal to those in positions of social and economic, as well as political and cultural, responsibility to hear the cry of the earth and to attend to the needs of the marginalized, but above all to respond to the plea of millions and support the consensus of the world for the healing of our wounded creation,” they wrote.

Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew released a joint statement to mark the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation on Sept. 1. They both say that they’re convinced there’s no sincere and enduring solution to the ongoing ecological crisis unless “the response is concerted and collective, unless the responsibility is shared and accountable, unless we give priority to solidarity and service.”

ROME – In a joint statement from Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew to mark the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation on Sept. 1, the two said that what’s happening in the world today reveals a “morally decaying scenario, where our attitude and behavior towards creation obscures our calling as God’s co-operators.”

They call on those “in positions of social and economic, as well as political and cultural, responsibility to hear the cry of the earth, and to attend to the needs of the marginalized.”